This invention relates to a packaging element for packaging sheet material such as banknotes, consisting of a plurality of envelopes for receiving the sheet material, said envelopes being arranged in succession and having their undersides separably attached to an auxiliary belt between the leading edge and the center of gravity. This invention also relates to a process for producing and an apparatus for separating such packaging elements.
Automatic money dispensers have recently been developed which dispense a specific number of banknotes when operated by an appropriately authorized person. In the known automatic money dispensers, a differentiation is made between dispensing individual bills and dispensing packets of bills. Owing to the simplified separation and the reduced risk of incorrect or malseparations (double bills), it has proved to be advantageous to package the banknotes in plastic envelopes and to dispense them from the automatic money dispensers in this form. Although the money is limited to predetermined, fixed amounts, this does not prove to be a disadvantage in practice. Only one separation operation is required for each money dispensing operation. By virtue of the packagings provided for this purpose, this separation operation is especially simple and reliable to execute.
Dispensing packets of money thus not only increases the reliability of separation, but also makes it possible to simplify the separating apparatus and the association monitoring elements.
German laying-open print DE-AS No. 2,419,737 recites and illustrates a separating apparatus which is capable of dispensing individual packaging elements in succession such as plastic envelopes accommodating cards or banknotes, for example. The plastic envelopes are attached to an auxiliary belt with equidistant spacing in an imbricated arrangement in a progressive sequence. The envelopes are affixed by two proximate welding spots in each case.
The envelopes are stacked one above the other in such a way that the auxiliary belt engages the leading edges similar to a bellows so that in each case a bending site is positioned adjacent to the leading edge of the envelope, adjacent to which the belt is fused to the underside of each envelope, whilst a second bending site is located between this envelope and the next envelope above it. By drawing the auxiliary belt over a lateral outlet opening, the individual plastic envelopes are removed from the stack in succession and are pulled along. In a downstream transport path, the belt is rotated by about 180.degree. whilst the envelope continues on without changing its direction. This causes the auxiliary belt to be torn off the underside of the envelope. The envelope can then be removed from the device and the detached belt is wound up on a roll.
The production of the known packaging element is a labour-intensive, since the actual envelopes have to be fused additionally to an auxiliary belt. Owing to the imbricated arrangement of the envelopes on the auxiliary belt, subsequent filling of the packages is troublesome, since the envelopes obstruct one another. In particular owing to the somewhat troublesome filling of the envelopes, the production of the filled envelopes is meaningful preferably at their place of manufacture, i.e. central production. "Decentral" filling of the packagings, i.e. in those banks in which the automatic money dispensers are located, however is also desirable for a more flexible handling of the money dispensing systems as well as for their utilization in other general fields of application.
Another drawback of the known packaging elements is seen in the fact that the force required to tear the auxiliary belt from the envelopes is relatively high compared to the force which is required to pull the packaging element into its position of separation. What is desirable, by contrast, would be for the force of separation of the auxiliary belt from the envelope during separation in the direction of transport to be as high as possible and the force of separation of the auxiliary belt perpendicular to the direction of transport to be low so that, on the one hand, the envelopes could reliably be brought into their separation position and, on the other hand, the auxiliary belt can be torn off the envelopes without difficulty and without deforming the envelopes.